I think I have heard some folks on say always buy your second trailler first.

Dont knock yourself out. Think of this as training wheels... You will learn a ton of things you will want do to for the next trailer. There is all sorts of things to consider after you figure what kind of camping is going to excite you guys. I started out with TENTs, and now up to the POPUPs, and really dont think we would be interested in the real big trailers. requires bigger trucks and all sorts of things to be involved with getting the monsteur down the road.

As I was saying on another post, we are very comfortable in out popup and have all the comforts of home with us. We can also park in any McDonald parking and drive thru any McDonald Drive thru. Can also drive thru an bank ATM. The best feature is we get 20-21MPG with our F150 truck whether we are towing our POPUP or not... Just wait until you start thinking I will be on top if we could could just get 10MPG pulling the bigger guys...

We are just now looking at 24-foot trailer in the JAYCO X213 and it doesnt have a slide either. Plenty of room for us and we are ready now for hard walls.

Yes, much depends on your budget and getting the most bang for the buck. At 60 and with a few years of working time to go we wanted to buy our last RV the first time around. Being able to work from it part of the time and have Uncle Sam kick in some tax money we wanted something which was a home on wheels. We did not want a floor plan with any dual purpose areas and slides were a necessity if I was to spend work days inside. After 18 months of looking, many walkthroughs and some test drives a new diesel Seneca 34SS was decided upon 5 years ago. The consensus from both of us is that we made the correct decision and have seen nothing we would trade it for which is less than 2-3 times the cost. Of course speaking of budgets a lottery win would probably put us in something different. Enjoy the hunt for the next rig with the experiences you have gathered and you will choose the next one wisely.

My parents traveled the entire continental US, including 3 months in Alaska as well as 3 territories in Canada in a PU pulling a 24' TT with no slide. They had a blast. When they gave up traveling, my brother's family of 5 traveled with it for 10 years. They had a blast. Now, another young family of 3 wants to buy it and they will have a blast.

Enjoy what you have, you can take it anywhere and giggle at the people who paid fortunes on RVs to camp in the same place as you. You can sleep well (and cozy)at night knowing you didn't blow a budget.

I used to tell photography students who asked me for advice on what camera to buy to expect that whatever they bought first, they would likely find reasons they should have bought something else, and to consider that first camera to be part of the education needed to get where they wanted to go, not as an end in itself. Before you've had any experience, you can't possibly know all the right questions to ask to get something perfect for yourself. It's the same with an RV, I recon.

So I'm glad you had a great time on those first half-dozen outings, and now know so much better what to get on it's replacement unit.

My 2 cents.... We just bought a used trailer with 1 slide, but had it narrowed down to 2 different trailers both 26' one with a slide and one without. in the end we got a better deal on the one with a slide which was also 2 years newer. I can't wait to take her out. We stuck to our budget and the wife is happy. we have a 1 year old daughter and our unit will sleep 6. it fits our needs and not too small to be cramped, but not too big to get in remote areas. We are boondockers and will likely never hook up to sewer/power/water.

Congrats on your purchase and happy camping!

post the pics of your TT I am sure the forum would like to see what a nice TT you got!

1999 Cameo by Carriage 26FLS bought in February 2012 (our first trailer)

TV is a 2005 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD 4X4 Crew Cab Short Bed with a 6.6l Duramax and Allison Transmission

After looking and think about this we decided that we really did not want to have payments nor take a lot of money out of the money market so we decided to buy this one and not have payments. We got it right so we are happy. It is just DW, myself and two little Yorkie's > I couldn't believe how much room this has over our 96 Storm 25' .

Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know much, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.